Supraorbital morphology and social dynamics in human evolution

Godinho, Ricardo Miguel; Spikins, Penny; O’Higgins, Paul

doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0528-0

Cited by 54 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 62 publications

(82 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This study supported the suggestion of previous studies that Homo sapiens are particularly distinct in their frontal bone morphology (Athreya, ; Bruner, Athreya, de la Cuétara, & Marks, ; Godinho, Spikins, & O'Higgins, ; Kurten, ; Lieberman, ; Russell, ; Schwartz & Tattersall, ; Smith & Ranyard, ). This distinction appears to be due to the minimally expressed supraorbital torus in our species, along with our tall, bulging frontal squamae.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Taxonomic variation in the supraorbital region of catarrhine primates

White

Soligo

Pope

et al. 2019

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: This study aimed to test the taxonomic utility of the catarrhine supraorbital region using 3D geometric morphometrics, with the aim of establishing its potential use in elucidating the position of more debated hominin groups.Materials and Methods: 230 3D coordinates were used to record the supraorbital morphology of two datasets: one containing 460 non-hominin catarrhine primates from species and subspecies of Gorilla, Pan, Papio, and Macaca; and the other containing 55 Pleistocene hominins from Homo, Australopithecus, and Paranthropus. Principal component analyses in tangent, form, and allometry-free shape space were used to assess differentiation of taxa, with biological distinctiveness of taxa being established using step-wise discriminant analysis with subsampling.Results: Results indicated that the recorded supraorbital morphology could be used to separate non-hominin catarrhine primate genera, species, and subspecies, although accuracy was found to decrease with decreasing Linnaean rank. In addition, analyses in tangent space were found to produce the highest accuracy when classifying primates of known taxonomy. Biological distinctiveness of the middle and later Homo species was comparable to or higher than that of the non-hominin primates, and relatively lower for the earlier groups of Homo.Discussion: This study indicates that the supraorbital region preserves taxonomic information that can be used to delineate between closely related groups, both within hominins and wider catarrhine primates. Therefore, this region may be used to provide insight when assessing the taxonomic affiliation of disputed hominin specimens. K E Y W O R D Sbiological distinctiveness, hominins, primates, supraorbital morphology, taxonomy

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Taxonomic variation in the supraorbital region of catarrhine primates

White

Soligo

Pope

et al. 2019

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Such indices identify the anteroposterior placement of the foramen magnum in respect of the maxilla and the brow ridge, respectively. Both areas witnessed important changes during the evolution of hominins (Bastir & Rosas, 2016;Godinho, Spikins, & O'Higgins, 2018;Lacruz et al, 2019), and their variability may be associated to factors other than locomotion, such as encephalization or prognathism. The same consideration holds for posture.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Locomotion, posture, and the foramen magnum in primates: Reliability of indices and insights into hominin bipedalism

Landi

Profico

Veneziano

et al. 2020

American J Primatol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The position (FMP) and orientation (FMO) of the foramen magnum have been used as proxies for locomotion and posture in extant and extinct primates. Several indices have been designed to quantify FMP and FMO but their application has led to conflicting results. Here, we test six widely used indices and two approaches (univariate and multivariate) for their capability to discriminate between postural and locomotor types in extant primates and fossil hominins. We then look at the locomotion of australopithecines and Homo on the base of these new findings. The following measurements are used: the opisthocranion–prosthion (OP–PR) and the opisthocranion–glabella (OP–GL) indices, the basion–biporion (BA–BP) and basion–bicarotid chords, the foramen magnum angle (FMA), and the basion–sphenoccipital ratio. After exploring the indices variability using principal component analysis, pairwise comparisons are performed to test for the association between each index and the locomotor and postural habits. Cranial size and phylogeny are taken into account. Our analysis indicates that none of the indices or approaches provides complete discrimination across locomotor and postural categories, although some differences are highlighted. FMA and BA–BP distinguish respectively obligate and facultative bipeds from all other groups. For what concerns posture, orthogrades and pronogrades differ with respects to OP–PR, OP–GL, and FMA. Although the multivariate approach seems to have some discrimination power, the results are most likely driven by facial and neurocranial variability embedded in some of the indices. These results demonstrate that indices relying on the anteroposterior positioning of the foramen may not be appropriate proxies for locomotion among primates. The assumptions about locomotor and postural habits in fossil hominins based on foramen magnum indices should be revised in light of these new findings.

show abstract

“…Thus, female faces' attractiveness-related SFs may reveal subtle deformations over the face surface, skin, and be related to the soft and malleable elements of the face, instead of its rigid skull structure. These highly mobile parts of the face like the mouth, eyes and eyebrows, all allow the display of subtle affiliative emotions [98], which may also play a key role when judging the attractiveness of an individual, even when just looking at static images [72].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Filtered beauty in Oslo and Tokyo: A spatial frequency analysis of facial attractiveness

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Images of European female and male faces were digitally processed to generate spatial frequency (SF) filtered images containing only a narrow band of visual information within the Fourier spectrum. The original unfiltered images and four SF filtered images (low, mediumlow, medium-high and high) were then paired in trials that kept constant SF band and face gender and participants made a forced-choice decision about the more attractive among the two faces. In this way, we aimed at identifying those specific SF bands where forced-choice preferences corresponded best to forced-choice judgements made when viewing the natural, broadband, facial images. We found that aesthetic preferences dissociated across SFs and face gender, but similarly for participants from Asia (Japan) and Europe (Norway). Specifically, preferences when viewing SF filtered images were best related to the preference with the broadband face images when viewing the highest filtering band for the female faces (about 48-77 cycles per face). In contrast, for the male faces, the medium-low SF band (about 11-19 cpf) related best to choices made with the natural facial images. Eye tracking provided converging evidence for the above, gender-related, SF dissociations. We suggest greater aesthetic relevance of the mobile and communicative parts for the female face and, conversely, of the rigid, structural, parts for the male face for facial aesthetics.

show abstract

Supraorbital morphology and social dynamics in human evolution

Cited by 54 publications

References 62 publications

Taxonomic variation in the supraorbital region of catarrhine primates

Taxonomic variation in the supraorbital region of catarrhine primates

Locomotion, posture, and the foramen magnum in primates: Reliability of indices and insights into hominin bipedalism

Filtered beauty in Oslo and Tokyo: A spatial frequency analysis of facial attractiveness

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About